1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to an RJ-11 modular jack connector with a boardlock which can secure the RJ-11 modular jack connector to a printed circuit board.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A solderable boardlock commonly attaches to the side of an electrical connector and has a foot at a bottom thereof for extending through and being soldered to a printed circuit board, thereby firmly securing the connector to the printed circuit board. The trend toward miniaturization of electrical devices, favors reducing the area on a printed circuit board occupied by such electrical connectors. Solderable boardlocks for electrical connectors are known which have the solder foot disposed beneath the electrical connector body. U.S. Pat. No. 6,042,420 discloses such an electrical connector having boardlocks with a minimal footprint. Although this electrical connector overcomes some disadvantages, there are still other problems to be solved. For example, the boardlocks are assembled to a bottom of the housing of the electrical connector from lateral sides of the housing in a horizontal direction and are fixed on the housing by an interfering force. The interfering force is too small to meet the requirements for securely retaining the boardlock to the housing.
Furthermore, the horizontal assembling manner is not convenient, making assembly inefficient.
Hence, an improved electrical connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
A first objective of the present invention is to provide a modular jack connector with solderable boardlocks vertically mounted to sidewalls of a dielectric housing of the modular jack.
A second objective of the present invention is to provide a modular jack connector with solderable boardlocks that can achieve a sufficiently large interferential force with the housing to prevent a separation of the housing and the boardlocks.
A third objective of the present invention is to provide a modular jack connector with solderable boardlocks wherein base portions of the boardlocks used for soldering to a printed circuit board can be reliably maintained in a horizontal plane.
To achieve the above objectives, a modular jack connector mounted on a printed circuit board comprises a housing and a pair of boardlocks. The housing has a bottom board-mounting face for mounting to a printed circuit board, two sides-faces upwardly extending from the board-mounting face, and a cavity for receiving a complementary modular plug therein. A groove is vertically defined in each of the side faces beginning from two sides of the board-mounting face. A plurality of contacts is fixed in the housing, each contact having a contacting section upwardly and rearward extending into the cavity, and a tail section for surface mounting to the printed circuit board. A pair of boardlocks each comprises a retaining portion vertically received in a corresponding groove and having an interferential engagement with the housing and a base portion perpendicularly extending from a lower portion of the retaining portion to a position beneath the board-mounting face. Each boardlock includes a post downwardly extending from the base portion for extending through the printed circuit board, and two wings extending upwardly from both sides of the base portion for abutting against the board-mounting face.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.